spending

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

World War II US Defense Spending

DURING WORLD War II defense spending in the United States exploded from two percent of GDP in 1940
to a peak of 42 percent in 1945 and then back down to seven percent by 1947.
But the data series of Federal Government Expenditure, by Function: 1902 to 1970 in
the Census Bureaus
Historical Statistics of the United States: From Colonial Times to 1970
only tabulates federal spending every two years: 1940, 1942, 1944, etc.
Fortunately, the Executive Branch budget documents published by the US Government Printing Office at
gpoaccess.gov
include a set of historical tables, including
Table 3.1 — Outlays by Superfunction and Function: 1940–2012. This table includes spending
for national defense for each year of World War II. The problem is that the numbers
in Table 3.1 dont match up with the Census Bureau numbers in Historical Statistics.

Comparison of World War II Defense Spending
(millions of dollars)

Spending Item

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

Census Bureau Numbers for National defense and international relations

Total

1,590

26,555

85,503

50,461

16,075

Military services only

1,567

22,633

74,670

42,677

10,642

Executive Branch budget numbers in Table 3.1

National Defense

1,660

6,435

25,658

66,699

79,143

82,965

42,681

12,808

9,105

You can see the problem. Not only does the Census Bureau not include the odd years, but
the numbers dont agree with the Executive Branch budget.
We chose to fill in the missing numbers in the the Census Bureau dataset by making
them track the trajectory of the numbers in the Executive Branch dataset. Here are the results:

Construction of World War II Defense Spending Dataset
(millions of dollars)